We were already in the Togolese highlands and it was lovely to drive through the hills. The German couple at Wli had recommended that we drive to the `Abbaye de l` Ascension Danyi ` in Dzoybegan. It is a monastery where travelers are welcomed as indeed we were. Claude, a Finnish chemical weapons expert turned organic farmer showed us around the next day. The monastery produced its own honey, coffee, pepper, syrups and citronella oil from its land. Claude was working with the monks to promote these products and help improve the quality of the citronella oil. We wondered if he was adding anything to the oil to give it an extra something special! The farm was a real success story concerning the large variety of crops they were growing and how the monks had involved the local farmers in the enterprise so they to could earn a good income. The farmers all had plots of land where they could grow the crops required by the monastery. The monastery would offer advice on growing and harvesting techniques and then buy the crops from them. The farmers could make a good and stable income every year. Other farmers in the area only seemed to grow the basics like fruit or tomatoes so the Monastery was helping to improve and diversify farming techniques in the area.

We had a big discussion during our stay about the route we now wanted to travel as our little traveling family all needed to go in different directions. Nicoline and Peter wanted to return to Ghana to ship so they wanted to go to the North of Togo, cross into Northern Benin and then go south to Ghana. Heike and Didi had to go North towards Europe so wanted to see Southern Togo before going north in Benin towards Niger!!! Which way for us to go? We really wanted to go to Niger and were not ready yet to give up on our route via Chad/Sudan. We decided to go north with the Germans, visit Niger and see if we could get better information whilst we were there on the Sudan route.

We took the scenic route to Akapame driving along the `pistes for beginners`. So named because they had hardly any holes and loads of signs to every village. Some signs even had the same village indicated in different directions. By the time we got to Akapame, Tubbs sneezing and eyes watering from all the grasses, we were starving. We waited two hours for a very dodgy fish dish. Actually no fish, mostly fish skin in batter with greasy chips. Headed for the bank which had closed from 12-3 but should have reopened. Got there to find it was shut on Monday afternoons! Kriss and Heike spent another 2 hours in the post office waiting for the Boss to arrive in order to change Euros whilst Tubbs and Slade escaped to the internet café. The day was finished off staying at the delightful 'Poubelle Hotel' named due to the large, smelly bins we had to sleep next to in the car park. This was not a great place to say goodbye to Nicoline and Peter. We had our last dinner together, Slade examining his meat with a magnifying glass.

It was sad the next day to watch our traveling companions leave us after almost three months together. We hoped we'd meet up again on the trip.

We only spent a week in Togo. We went down to Lome via Kpalime which was meant to be beautiful. Unfortunately no water in them according to some locals so we carried on. We were stopped quite a lot by the Gendarmie. The conversation almost always went like this. 'Ca va......where you come from.....where going........you give me small money'. 'No'. 'OK then, very happy to see you this morning'!

Apparently you have not been to West Africa if you have not been to the German Restaurant Marocs in Lome. It sells Schweinehaxsen (pigs knuckle), Wurse Salad (sausage and cheese) and other food that's difficult to spell. Heike and Didi took us straight there and feed us sausage and German beer, which we didn't complain about and they took us back again that evening. Next door was a German supermarket selling lots of goodies, it took a while before we could retrieve our friends from inside!

We stayed at Chez Alice, also owned by a German lady, about 7km from the town. Not a particularly great place. There was no running water so you needed to go the well to get water for the shower which was fine but the toilet was literally just that. No water, just a toilet which you hoped had been doused with the bucket before you got there.

It was here that we met Xavier and Marcus. Marcus, a Swiss guy, had passed his driving test, brought a Land Rover V8 and headed to Morocco. On reaching Africa he saw no reason to stop and had continued south. He'd had quite an adventure albeit an expensive one. He had met Xavier and a Spanish couple in their camper van and had crossed the Noudibou to Nouckchott desert. He basically pulled the Spanish across and burnt his clutch out somewhere in the middle of the crossing. 1,200 Euros later after sending someone to get the parts, bring them back and fit them, he was not happy.

Xavier had done a great job of nurturing his high cab VW camper down from England. He came over to Slade and Didi with a bag full of brake parts and started discussing how to fit them. This raised some concern as brakes are something you want to know are fitted 100% kosher and are not really a job for the amateur. One look at his old ones which looked like they had been left in sea water for six weeks made us realize why he was so desperate to change them.

Both Xavier and Marcus had spent two weeks at Chez Alice negotiating and arranging the shipment of their vehicles home to Marseille. The vehicles were due to ship in two days time and they were both a bit stressed. Consequently they had a whole list of shipping company contacts. Xavier spoke fluent French and kindly sat in a phone box for an hour phoning different shipping lines for us. In order to ship to Kenya he concluded that SDV-Saga-Delmas was the only real option. Grimaldi didn't go that far and Maersk was too expensive at 3,400 Euros.

We met them both that afternoon and went to the SDV shipping office. They were now very stressed as the bank wouldn't release the 1,200 Euros that was needed for 10am the next morning and the shipping company wouldn't except visa. Luckily Xavier could discuss the problem with his good grasp of French and we realized if we had any problems trying to ship from Lome we'd really be in trouble as we only had vocabulary for buying food and directions. Our doubts about shipping increased as the Mediterranean Shipping company suddenly dropped their price to 900 Euros which meant that even the prices weren't fixed and were open for negotiation.

We retreated back to Chez Alice for a beer and to watch a very dynamic group of Liberian dancers. They were crazy mixing traditional dances with acrobatics, head balancing, stilt walking whilst all the time changing costumes and masks. All these dancers were also staying in our campsite and we later fell over them as they had crashed out in front of the huts.

On Thursday.......we pushed onto the Benin border. Leaving Togo was ok no major problems although, as with entering the country, the customs man didn't know how to fill out the Carnet.